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Justin Carter's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the 2025 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix. Read our daily fantasy F1 advice and sleepers analysis.
Formula 1 heads to China this weekend for the Chinese Grand Prix, the second race of the season. We've already had plenty of on-track action this weekend, including Saturday's Sprint race which saw Lewis Hamilton defeat Oscar Piastri by 6.889 seconds.
Last week in Australia, Lando Norris showed that he should be viewed as the championship favorite as he opened the year with a win. Defending champion Max Verstappen came in second, and the two are likely to be in a title duel all year.
Below you will find our Formula 1 DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the Chinese Grand Prix on 3/23/25, with the slate locking at 3:00 a.m. EDT. If you have any questions or want to talk about Formula 1, you can find me on X at @juscarts or on Bluesky.
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Captain: Oscar Piastri ($16.5K)
Starts First
One week ago, Oscar Piastri's McLaren teammate Lando Norris dominated the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. He won the pole while being fastest in all three qualifying sessions and went on to lead most of the race, only briefly falling behind Max Verstappen.
Meanwhile, Piastri started beside Norris on the front row, but lost control of his car, spinning and getting stuck briefly before managing to get back on track. By that point though, Piastri had fallen to 13th and was only able to recover to ninth.
OSCAR PIASTRI TAKES HIS FIRST-EVER F1 POLE POSITION 🎉#F1 #ChineseGP pic.twitter.com/23fVPJ7rfz
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 22, 2025
Maybe this will be Piastri's week though. It's too early for McLaren to go all in on gunning for a Norris title, especially when Piastri has been the top McLaren this weekend. He was the runner-up in the Sprint race while Norris only finished eighth, then qualified on pole with Norris in third. It's Piastri's first F1 pole.
Another thing that Piastri has going for him is this track. There have been 17 Formula 1 races here, but just five were won by a driver starting outside the front row. Since 2014, it's happened just once. Last year, polesitter Max Verstappen led 51 of 56 laps to take the victory.
Constructor: Racing Bulls F1 Team ($3.4K)
We're taking a risk here, but the Racing Bulls cars have been decently quick this weekend. The only teams with two cars starting in the top 10 are McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Racing Bulls, with Isack Hadjar qualifying seventh and Yuki Tsunoda in ninth.
The team just has to avoid a repeat of last weekend. In Australia, Tsunoda started fifth and Hadjar qualified 11th, just missing out on a top-10 start in his debut. That debut never came, though, as Hadjar crashed on the formation lap and was unable to start the race.
Assuming Hadjar can keep the car in one piece in Shanghai, Racing Bulls has a chance to score double points, or at least a chance for one of its drivers to finish in the points.
George Russell ($10.6K)
Starts Second
Lewis Hamilton's replacement at Mercedes, Kimi Antonelli, looks pretty good. He finished fourth last week but was still nearly two seconds behind George Russell.
Russell, the top dog at Mercedes now, qualified second for this week's race. As mentioned above, the front row has historically been a good place to start at this race track.
With Antonelli starting back in eighth, Russell has a major grid advantage over his teammate and a great shot at the "defeated teammate" points, as well as a podium finish.
Lewis Hamilton ($9.6K)
Starts Fifth
Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari debut last weekend went...okay-ish. Hamilton brought his No. 44 car home in 10th place, certainly not the result the team wanted but at least in the points.
This weekend is off to a much better start, as Hamilton took the victory in the Sprint on Saturday, giving him an early boost this weekend.
LEWIS HAMILTON WINS #F1SPRINT, HIS FIRST VICTORY FOR FERRARI 🤩#F1 #ChineseGP pic.twitter.com/zpgV66tEUw
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 22, 2025
He and teammate Charles Leclerc will share the third row on the grid on Sunday and both have upside, but I prefer Hamilton in DFS for one clear reason: he's cheaper. Leclerc costs $10.2K, while Hamilton is $600 cheaper.
Yuki Tsunoda ($5.0K)
Starts Ninth
Here's my argument for using Yuki Tsunoda as our Racing Bulls driver to pair with our Racing Bulls constructor pick instead of his teammate Isack Hadjar, who starts one row ahead of him: Hadjar has no F1 experience.
I'm optimistic that Hadjar's weekend will go better than last weekend went, but if I'm trusting a Racing Bulls driver as more than just a punt option, it has to be Tsunoda, who finished sixth in the Sprint race, far ahead of Hadjar in 13th.
That's not to say there's not some value in building a couple of lineups with Hadjar. At just $3.0K, he's the cheapest driver in the field and will give you some extra salary space to work with.
Nico Hulkenberg ($4.2K)
Starts 12th
There are two solid options for this last spot: Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Haas F1 Team's Esteban Ocon, who would cost you $200 less than Hulkenberg and starts beside him on the grid in 11th.
We're not talking enough about how Nico Hulkenberg has scored points every time he's finished a race since last year's Singapore GP.
Another consistent driver flying under the radar. pic.twitter.com/iY4XiTHnb3
— Daniel Valente 🏎️ (@F1GuyDan) March 20, 2025
We're opting for Hulkenberg here simply because this Haas team looked really slow in Australia. Ocon and Ollie Bearman were the last two drivers among those who finished the race and finished 15th and 16th in the Sprint.
Of course, Hulkenberg only finished 19th in the Sprint, but there were mitigating circumstances there as he had to start from the pit lane after the team made modifications to the car. Don't let that poor Sprint finish scare you off of playing him.
Defeated Teammate Picks
Trying something new this week, which is predicting each team's top driver. Let's see how it goes:
- McLaren: Oscar Piastri
- Mercedes: George Russell
- Red Bull: Max Verstappen
- Ferrari: Lewis Hamilton
- Racing Bulls: Yuki Tsunoda
- Williams: Alex Albon
- Haas: Esteban Ocon
- Sauber: Nico Hulkenberg
- Aston Martin: Fernando Alonso
- Alpine: Pierre Gasly
How Does Formula 1 Fantasy Work?
Here's how the scoring and format work for F1 DFS on DraftKings. You'll pick five drivers and a constructor. One of those drivers will be your captain, who earns you 1.5 times the points but also costs 1.5 times as much as they usually cost. For the constructor, you're choosing one of the F1 teams.
So here's how the scoring works. Your driver only gets points if they finish in the top 10. Here's a chart for how that breaks down:
| Finishing Spot | DraftKings Points |
|---|---|
| 1 | 25 |
| 2 | 18 |
| 3 | 15 |
| 4 | 12 |
| 5 | 10 |
| 6 | 8 |
| 7 | 6 |
| 8 | 4 |
| 9 | 2 |
| 10 | 1 |
In addition, the driver with the fastest lap of the race gets three points. You get 0.1 points per lap led, five points for beating your teammate, one point for being classified at the finish, and there are points for place differential.
Finish three spots higher than your grid position, and you will get two points. Finish five better, and you get three points. Finish 10 better to get five points. You also lose points for a negative place differential, starting at three spots.
The constructor points work the same way, with some added points if both cars do well. It's confusing, but for Formula 1 DFS to work, it probably had to be confusing, considering the huge gaps in speed between various teams and the small driver pool.
